HOW WOULD OUR GOVERNMENT REACT IF THERE WERE A DAILY BARRAGE OF ROCKETS FIRED AT THE US FROM MEXICO?

Spectacular moment Israel's Iron Dome defense system intercepts and blows a string of 30 rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon

 

By Natasha Anderson and Stephen M. Lepore 

Daily Mail

Mar 5, 2024

Spectacular video showed Israel's 'Iron Dome' at work on Tuesday night in the north of Israel, as the famous defense system blew up a string of 30 rockets fired by the terror group Hezbollah from Lebanon

Spectacular video showed Israel's 'Iron Dome' at work on Tuesday night in the north of Israel, as the famous defense system blew up a string of 30 rockets fired by the terror group Hezbollah.

The system, invented by Dr. Danny Gold, is made up of a series of batteries that use radars to detect and intercept incoming short-range missiles.

'Israel’s missile defenses look like the Battle of Hogwarts,' wrote Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy in reaction. 

Hezbollah has reportedly claimed credit for the attempted rocket attacks, supposedly responding to an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Monday.

They attempted to hit Kiryat Shmona, Israel's northernmost town, which saw evacuations after the Hamas terror attack on October 7. 

 

Hezbollah has reportedly claimed credit for the attempted rocket attacks, supposedly responding to an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Monday

At least one of the rockets fired landed in the yard of a home in Israel but no injuries have been reported, according to Mediaite. 

The IDF responded in kind, launching strikes at Hezbollah positions and struck at an anti-tank missile launch. 

It comes as Vice President Kamala Harris expressed her 'deep concern' for the citizens of Gaza on Monday as she urged Israel to craft a 'credible' humanitarian plan before conducting major military activities in Rafah.

Harris held a meeting with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival who joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government early in the war following Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Harris also pressed Israel to take more measures to get aid into Gaza, reiterating a sharp message delivered on Sunday where she called conditions in the coastal enclave 'inhumane.'

Meanwhile, Israel is now looking to add a 'new dimension' to its multi-layer defense system and has begun testing a laser that can shoot missiles out of the sky, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Gold, who heads up Israel's Defense Research and Development Directorate, said the new laser was being 'played with' during the ongoing conflict with Hamas and has had a 'very good test'.

'We got authorization one year ago to go to full scale development and bring the system to the field. We will finish the job in numerous years,' he told the newspaper. 

 

Israeli airstrike reportedly targeted Al-Bukhari Mosque in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on March 2

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz met with Vice President Harris in Washington Monday 

 

The Iron Dome, according to Gold, is 'working well' and 90 percent successful at stopping incoming attacks, but the scientist says 'you never sit still.'

The system is part of a shield that envelopes the country. Above the Iron Dome is the so-called David's Sling, which knocks out enemy aircraft and long-range rockets fired from up to 200 miles away.

Above the sling are the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, which offered protection from ballistic missiles fired at Israel by the likes of Iran.

Gold says the new laser would not replace the Iron Dome, but work alongside it, noting that the system 'doesn't work through clouds' and 'needs clear skies'.

The laser also offers cost advantages, explained Gold. 'To shoot light is nothing. It is the price of electricity,' he said, adding that each missile fired by the dome costs approximately $100,000.

The scientist said he can't say 'exactly when' the laser will be ready for routine use but explained how every 'once in a while we play with the current toolkit that we have. If we have the opportunity of people shooting at us, we can expand the testing.' 

 

The man who invented Israel 's Iron Dome defense system is planning to build a laser that can shoot down incoming rockets using beams of light. The Iron Dome missile defense system is pictured firing interceptors at rockets launched from the Gaza Strip in May 2023

Danny Gold, the country's equivalent to MI6 's Q, said the new laser was being 'played with' during the ongoing conflict with Hamas and has had a 'very good test.' Gold is pictured at DSEI London in September 2023

Israeli soldiers operate in what the military described as a Hamas command tunnel running partly under UNRWA headquarters in the Gaza Strip on February 8

 

Israel continues to push into Gaza after the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas left 1,200 dead. 

As Israeli forces have pushed steadily southwards, Rafah has become the last major population center in Gaza that troops have yet to enter, even as it is bombarded by air strikes almost daily.

The Israeli Prime Minister, who contends 'victory' over Hamas cannot be achieved without clearing battalions in Rafah, directed his military on Friday to prepare for the operation. His announcement set off a chorus of concern from world leaders and aid groups.

'The people in Gaza cannot disappear into thin air,' German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on social media platform X, adding that an Israeli offensive on Rafah would be a 'humanitarian catastrophe in the making.'

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry warned Saturday of 'very serious repercussions of storming and targeting' Rafah and called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting, while UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he is 'deeply concerned' about the prospective offensive.

'The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out,' he wrote.

Netanyahu announced the plan for a ground operation in Rafah only days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel seeking a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange.

Netanyahu has rejected the proposed truce after what he called 'bizarre demands' from Hamas.

But Israel's plans for Rafah have drawn sharp rebuke from main ally and military backer Washington, with the State Department warning that if not properly planned, such an operation risks 'disaster.'

 

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip on February 8 near what the military described as a Hamas command tunnel running partly under UNRWA headquarters

Palestinian children wait in line on February 10 to receive food prepared by volunteers for families displaced to Southern Gaza due to Israeli attacks

A school run the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (URRWA) where people sought refuge from Israeli bombardments, stands ravaged in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on February 10 

 

In unusually sharp criticism, US President Joe Biden on Thursday called Israel's retaliatory campaign 'over the top'.

Gaza's Hamas rulers warned on Saturday that a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah could cause 'tens of thousands' of casualties.

The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the move 'threatens security and peace in the region and the world' and is 'a blatant violation of all red lines'.

The Hamas-run territory's health ministry said on Sunday that 94 people were killed in overnight bombardments across Gaza, including in Rafah.

The Israeli military said it killed two 'senior Hamas operatives' in a strike on Rafah Saturday.

It was part of a wider bombardment that killed at least 25 people in the city, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

To the north in Gaza City, Israel's military claimed that its troops uncovered a Hamas tunnel under the evacuated headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for its head, Philippe Lazzarini, to quit.

 

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip on February 8 as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues

Israeli soldiers inside a compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip on February 8

Israeli soldiers  on February 8 stake position next to crumpled-up UN vehicles perched precariously atop building debris in UNRWA compound, where the military discovered tunnels in the main headquarters of the UN agency that the military says Hamas used to attack its forces during a ground operation in Gaza

 

Lazzarini said the agency had not operated from the compound since October 12 when staff evacuated it under instruction from Israeli forces.

Already under pressure after Israel claimed 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack, he called for an independent investigation into the latest Israeli accusations.

An AFP photographer was among a number of journalists taken to the compound and tunnel by the Israeli military on Thursday.

UN premises are considered 'inviolable' in international law and immune from 'search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference'.

Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations that it has dug a network of tunnels under schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure as cover for its activities.

On Sunday, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called UNRWA 'a Hamas front'.

The war, now in its fifth month, has spawned intensifying public fury in Israel.

Protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand the release of the hostages, Netanyahu step down and fresh elections be called.

 

Supporters of hostages block a road in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 10 during a protest calling for their release, amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas

Relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza block a highway as they protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government's refusal to call a ceasefire and exchange hostages with Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 10

Supporters and families of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas light bonfires as they block the traffic on Ayalon main highway during a protest demanding their release, in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 10

Police officers extinguish the fire set on a barricade during a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 10  to demand the release of the hostages taken by Hamas

Families of hostages and supporters block a road, during a protest calling for their release, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 10

 

'It's clear Netanyahu is dragging out the war, he has no idea what to do on the day after,' Israeli protester Gil Gordon said.

The war has had far-reaching impact well beyond Israel and Gaza, with violence involving Iran-backed allies of Hamas surging across the Middle East.

A senior Hamas officer survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon, Palestinian and Lebanese security sources have said, but two other people including a Hezbollah member were killed in the attack.

And in Syria, Israeli strikes near Damascus killed three people, a war monitor said, adding the targeted neighbourhood hosted villas for top military and civilian officials.